Guards ‘handcuffed’
Can’t control Rikers with ‘no solitary’ rule
Department of Correction brass haven’t been able to implement reforms at Rikers Island because inmates are too violent and there’s not enough space to house them safely with the jail complex’s looming closure, according to internal documents.
DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi wrote five “variance request” letters last week asking the city Board of Correction for temporary reprieve from changes meant to make the notorious lockup friendlier to inmates.
In one of the letters about the use of restraints, Schiraldi says unshackled inmates can’t watch TV together without “the serious risk of violence” due to “infrastructure limitations in the current punitive segregation housing areas.”
DOC closed the dorm-style Eric M. Taylor Center last year as part of its effort to close Rikers by 2027.
In another letter, titled “Separation Status Housing,” Schiraldi says the units, which have replaced recently banned solitary confinement, are necessary to deter inmates from hiding contraband.
“Although it is utilized sparingly, separation status is vital to the department’s efforts to remove contraband from circulation in our facilities,” Schiraldi wrote.
Without the threat of putting inmates in isolation, correction officers likely wouldn’t have found 496 banned items this year, including 230 weapons like metal shanks and 200 drug stashes including magazines soaked in fentanyl, according to Schiraldi and union sources.
“We’re dealing with a more violent inmate today, that’s just a fact. We have to have the means to separate violent inmates,” said Benny Boscio, head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.
The conditions at Rikers have gotten so dire that an inmate recently tried to hang himself in front of lawmakers who were touring the facility this week and Mayor de Blasio announced a five-point emergency plan to control the chaos.
Amid the crisis, Gov. Hochul is expected on Friday to sign legislation that allows more leniency for parolees and could mean the release of inmates locked up on technical parole violations, sources told The Post.
The “Less is More” law will remove reasons to put parolees back behind bars. It will remove technical parole violations, such as being late for or missing an appointment, and speed up the time frame for judicial review of infractions.